I’m always fascinated to learn more about how science, like cognitive science, supports or refutes hunches and practices about learning and teaching. It’s always refreshing to know that a successful instructional practice can be supported through research in neuroscience.

This story reinforced for us that despite the size of our high school students, their brain development and capability are different than what we see in adults. They have some advantages and disadvantages. Especially interesting was the part about new ways of educating medical students to be self-learners, which supports my preference for supporting inquiry in the classroom.

Back in the late fall of 2004—yes!, just over ten years ago—I started podcasting for Goochland County Public Schools. These were audio-only. Some podcasts were conversations with then superintendent, Frank Morgan. The main idea behind the podcast was to highlight the good things we were doing with technology in our schools.

Today, TechTimesLive is still updated, albeit more slowly than before. With 167 episodes, there is a considerable amount of content I have pushed out, online, with a focus changing to providing professional development videos.

What’s special about podcasting?

Podcasts are one form of serialized, creative communications. It’s more of a delivery method than media, but we tend to think of podcasts as audio or video files that we can listen to using a mobile device like an iPod or a phone. But what’s interesting is the process involved in creating these files and the potential for a world-facing audience once they are published.

You see, podcasts (and here I need to be specific) are like television shows, a magazine, a blog, or a YouTube channel. It’s an umbrella container for episodes. Just like a magazine has multiple articles (or a regular column, month to month), a blog has posts, and a YouTube channel has multiple videos, a podcast is organized around a topic with multiple takes on that topic.

Why might I start a podcasting project with students?

Podcasting in the classroom can take some time, which is why, in a 1:1 environment, podcasting becomes a new type of homework assignment. The key is—students will love making podcasts if we can focus the series on something students want to know about. There has to be a little passion behind the theme of the podcast, otherwise, producing episodes will feel like tedium and an audience beyond the teacher will be less likely…

When you produce episodes in a podcast, you have to be organized,know what you are talking about, and polish your presentation. In my recent effort in producing a new podcast outside of work, I thought it would be easy. But when I set out to actually do an episode, suddenly, I realized it was more work. But it was still fun. And after I recorded each episode, I knew a lot more about the topics I had chosen to focus on in each 20-minute episode.

How important is the audience?

We don’t play television sitcoms on TVs in forests where there are only birds and trees. An audience is important, but it does not have to be huge one. As Chris Anderson taught is in his 2006 book The Long Tail, there is a huge amount of diversity in interests out there, and published podcasts, I believe, are likely to be of interest to somebody. For students, that can be a peer, a relative, or even a stranger who shares a similar interest with the student.

How do I get started?

Share some examples. You might start by making it one choice in several for a student, not everyone is required to make their own show. Some students may choose to work together, and that’s fine. While the iTunes Podcast Directory (open iTunes Store and click to Podcasts) has ton of examples of podcasts, you might also share the video episodes put together by Super-Awesome Sylvia.

Does it have to be a podcast?

No. The point here is serialized creative communications. More examples can be found in YouTube videos produced by teenagers and college students, blogs, live streams of video game playing, a really cool Flickr account, and more. The point is, we get into a habit with our communication, sharing in a somewhat regular fashion, as a way to share, but also teach ourselves more about something that matters to us. While 1:1 technology is not required, it’s a pretty awesome use of our devices, and a good reason personalize learning.

An article from 16 March 2011 by Dr. Alison Gopnik examined the rationale for re-thinking recent changes in preschool education. The findings she shared within the article, not to mention her conclusions, really are food for thought for all of preK-12 education. The conclusions she draws, based on two studies with young students?

Direct instruction really can limit young children’s learning. …it also makes children less likely to discover unexpected information and to draw unexpected conclusions.

Put another way, from the article:

While learning from a teacher may help children get to a specific answer more quickly, it also makes them less likely to discover new information about a problem and to create a new and unexpected solution.

Gopnik cites a discovery by a computer learning expert who has suggested that before we can learn from teachers, we learn something about teachers. We understand they have authority with information, and they are very likely to tell us what we need to know. That assumption about the teacher’s role shuts down our motivation for the discovery of new information.

Gopnik is not anti-teacher, as she says “it’s more important than ever to give children’s remarkable, spontaneous learning abilities free reign.” The teacher’s role remains important, as “affectionate, supportive grown-ups” who can provide “lots of opportunities for exploration and play.” In words I have echoed, it sounds like she is calling for inquiry and support for engagement from teachers, or a “student-centered” classroom.

An Online Course for Teachers

PBL for Teachers. That’s the name of a new online course I have developed that will begin officially on January 12, 2015. Delivered via Schoology and facilitated by both Bea Leiderman and Zoe Parrish, this course will cover why we advocate for engaging, project-based approaches in our classrooms, the eight essential elements of a project-based lesson, assessing projects and twenty-first century skills, how technology adds value to learning, developing driving questions and entry events, and the role inquiry plays in deeper learning experiences such as projects.

The course is designed to move about one section per week, and requires the participant to read, watch a number of videos, and participate in a few online discussions with peers. The culminating part of the project is the design of a PBL experience for students, which can be your G21 project for this year. If you deliver the project after its been submitted as part of this course, you can also submit a short reflection on the project and receive additional recertification points.

Recertification

Regular participation in the course and completion of Parts 1-8 will receive 25 points as an “educational project.” Completion of the project with students and submission of the reflection adds an additional 15 points for a total of 40. Please note that each time you apply for re-certification for your teaching license, only one educational project may be submitted for credit. If you already have conducted a project in this category, you will not be able to apply these points towards re-certification.

How do I sign up?

The attached PDF outlines the 8 parts of the course and an online enrollment code. Simply sign into Schoology, click on “Courses” at the top and click “Join.” Paste in the enrollment code and you’re in!

What are Bea’s and Zoe’s role in this course?

As course facilitators, they will be available to answer questions via email or iChat. In addition, they will be the ones monitoring course discussions and assessments. They will also be the ones providing feedback on project ideas and project submissions. For the project reflections, I will be reviewing those and certifying that all work is complete in concert with building principals.

Does this count as my technology integration course?

Absolutely.

Anything else I need to know?

This opportunity is open to all teachers. Because there is a significant number of videos included in the course, access to broadband Internet is required to watch the videos. You may, however, watch the videos from school to access this content.

This opportunity presently is only open to teachers in Goochland County, Virginia.

This recent article, shared via @PeteGretzGCPS is an interesting read, about how to prepare students for innovation outside of school. I’d recommend taking the five suggestions on taping them up near where we plan lessons or even in our classrooms, as reminders of how we ought to be designing instruction for students.

Play – learning can be fun and we need to give opportunities for play in our classrooms.

Curiosity – inquiry will drive deeper learning and we need to develop and use student curiosity to fuel learning.

Passion – when we think of personalization, we first need to know what our students are interested in and then find opportunities to match learning with these passions.

Fearlessness – we can’t be afraid to make mistakes. We learn from them.

Purpose – the work students take on need purpose; students should be working for making change rather than a grade.

These aren’t easy to do each and every day. But I was struck with how these qualities for promoting innovation also so closely align with deeper learning!

It hasn’t been too long now since an idea made waves through education circles around flipping the classroom. It first emerged as a college methodology for courses. I first wrote about this in 2011, and I focused first on the “how-to” aspect of making your own videos. I have since learned more about this teaching methodology and have thought about it with more care. Educause does a nice summary of what the concept is and points out some watch-fors. They point out a few important things:

Flipping involves watching videos.

Video watching happens outside of class.

Video watching replaces receiving information in a lecture format.

Class time is used to apply the knowledge conveyed through video outside of class through a variety of activities, such as an interactive discussion.

Not everyone means the same thing when the term “flipping” is used. In other words, there may be important differences by what is taking place when we are having conversations about flipping the classroom.

Today, the practice is so popular that social spaces have opened for K-16 teachers on flipping. One example is the Flipped Learning Network.

A balanced article (by which I mean they don’t take a pro-flipping or anti-flipping stance) by ASCD’s Educational Leadershipcame out in March, 2013 positing that enough research had not yet been done to “prove” that flipping the classroom was what I might call a “home run.” They do cite some resources suggesting the lecture format is a good delivery methodology with it’s own set of caveats (more on this below). Of particular interest in the article to me was this:

The lack of hard scientific evidence doesn’t mean teachers should not flip their classrooms; indeed, if we only implemented strategies supported by decades of research, we’d never try anything new. Until researchers are able to provide reliable data, perhaps the best we can do is to ask, Do the purported benefits of flipped classrooms reflect research-based principles of effective teaching and learning?

The important question, however, is how long should we try?

Despite the article linked above that appeared with a citation in Educational Leadership, I’d argue that for many K-12 students a “lecture” is not a good method for instruction given other options. I’d define a lecture for this purpose to be teacher-led instruction, where students sit passively listening or actively taking notes, while a teacher talks, draws, reads, uses slideware (such as PowerPoint), and shows video demonstrations. Presenting information is sometimes necessary and so I am not saying lectures or lecture-type presentations should be outlawed. But they cite an article that used estimation strategy on math test data for ~6,000 students across 205 schools with 639 teachers. The TIMSS test from 2003 used in the study asked teachers if they presented material by lecture or by doing practice problems in the classroom (called effective teaching). The problem for me with this example is that it was not comparing constructivist-style pedagogies such as project-based learning in the classroom. What it did do was prove with some sophisticated mathematics that students likely gained more information from a lecture than working out problems for math classes.

But does that prove that lectures are effective at deeper learning? It likely depends on how talented your lecturer is to get us (the students) to think!

Let’s Revisit the Model

Let’s keep using math as a subject to illustrate the flipping mechanism again. Let’s make some assumptions. First, this is how we might frame “traditional” instruction for math:

Students are presented new material by the teacher (lecture).

Students work through an example problem or problems with the teacher (guided instruction).

Students work independently (or collaboratively with peers) on more problems, with the ability to ask for assistance in class (checks for understanding).

Students are assessed on the homework to prove acquisition of knowledge (formative assessment).

Flipping either uses the same constructs or perhaps even introduces new ones.

Here’s a basic flipped model:

Students are assigned homework to watch video clips that introduce new information (lecture).

Students may be assessed as part of their homework on how well they understood the information (or to prove they watched the videos) (formative assessment).

Students have the opportunity to ask questions in class before activities begin (checks for understanding).

Students come to class and work collaboratively or independently on problems (guided practice, independent practice).

(There isn’t necessarily a step 5; more time was spent learning new material at home rather than in class.)

So, there’s also an option for having a real #5:

Students use class time to apply the knowledge beyond the practice of problems and have an opportunity to apply this knowledge to working towards an authentic challenge.

This new opportunity may have been classified before as a type of “project” that would be assigned for homework. Now, the project work might take place in the classroom.

On the surface, flipping may have a real advantage in that it provides in-school time for constructivist learning, it allows the teacher to step away as a lecturer during in-school time to facilitate or assist practice, and it still provides the teacher the opportunity to share knowledge through a different medium of delivery and at a different time.

Are we all providing that constructivist experience?

You will notice above that I slip in there this idea that teachers have time now to learn with a constructivist approach, but there’s no agreement, I have found, that all “flippers” do this. To be specific, when I say “constructivist” I mean that we provide students an opportunity to play, tinker, or discover to find solutions to a problem. Many teachers apply this approach in a social setting, meaning that students are working together in groups.

I know some teachers do not provide this opportunity for trial-and-error, because of the perception that only limited time is available for instruction, and there is too much content to cover, given the length of the day, semester, or year.

I’d wager at this point that if a new method is not introduced, such as an active classroom discussion, inquiry, or a group project, we are not really changing much with the flipped model. We are just changing the location and time of day in which new information is presented. If that is the case, we provide less help when the knowledge is presented (lecture) as a trade-off for more time for guided and independent practice. This may be preferable at times, depending on the needs of the class on a particular topic being covered.

A critical standpoint

Sure, I think the flipped classroom is a preposterous unsustainable trend, masquerading as education reform, in which kids are forced to work a second unpaid shift because adults refuse to edit a morbidly obese curriculum.

Stager does not go into more details, I wonder if he’s looking at asking students to watch videos outside of the classroom as a method not to introduce constructivist (or any other active) learning opportunities into the the student’s day, but rather to add to in-class lecture time with canned lectures or presentations outside of class. Or, maybe he’s siding with others who question the value of homework all together!

I’ve learned that inquiry & PBL learning can be incredibly powerful in the hands of students. I would never teach any other way again. When students own their learning, then deep, authentic, transformative things happen in a classroom. It has nothing to do with videos, or homework, or the latest fad in education. It has everything to do with who owns the learning.

Is watching videos bad, then?

I’d wager that videos are not bad in light of the “a ha!” moment Ms. Wright had teaching math and science (she said so herself!). But if we can agree that the passive role (for the student) via delivery of content (by the teacher) that we call lecture is not the most ideal way to engage students with instruction, as it’s already been said, why is that okay by video instead of by a live person?

It shouldn’t be.

But as it comes up in a lot of the discussion on flipping, the Khan Academy is a website that has a lot of lecture-y videos on how to do math problems (and now other things). But I’m a fan of the site. Their practice problems and feedback for teachers can provide some nice formative assessment data on a student’s progress in math. The access to the lecture knowledge is nice for “when it’s needed” situations. That said, it may not be the best way for all students to learn. Some may do better with a different type of presentation by video, and others may learn better through reading about the information, or having a discussion with someone living and breathing. In general, however, that video library (or any library a teacher wants to create themselves) is an opportunity to painlessly and perhaps even more efficiently explain a concept with different perspectives when a student or the adaptive software thinks it is appropriate. More research is needed, of course.

Watching videos of how someone else is re-telling about their discovery of knowledge flies in the face of what Wright said that I think is so valuable, so golden. Who owns that knowledge, who will own the learning?

Let me give you another idea about how video can help us teach math. This matrix of videos are a collection of “three-act math tasks” designed from an inquiry-based, constructivist mindset about learning. These videos give context to math, challenging students through scaffolds on how to think about problems, that in least in some cases, are kind of interesting.

The problem with teaching this way is that it takes time if it’s new for the teacher. The teacher’s role changes. But looking at least a few of these examples might convince you that videos for math (or any other topic) aren’t necessarily bad at all. But these videos aren’t the ones we’d assign for homework watching, either. They provide visual and authentic evidence and get us thinking about how math can be used to provide evidence about what we’re observing, how math can help us answer somewhat interesting questions, and be applied in understanding the real world.

To start, we have to get beyond thinking about some test where problems will appear later in the year.

Conclusions

Flipping the classroom is a teaching paradigm that re-defines the role of homework for students. Instead of using that out-of-class time to practice tasks, a teacher designs that use of time for listening to a presentation of information. Evidence suggests that some students find these types of videos engaging, but others do not.

At its best, the re-distribution of time and sequence of learning activities might provide the opportunity for more guided and independent practice in the classroom. In addition, in lieu of this practice, flipping may provide the opportunity for more social forms of learning that include inquiry and problems that put the onus of knowledge acquisition on the student independently or within a learning group.

Critics of flipping the classroom point to lecture by video as a stale and less effective method for teaching content, including our example, math. That’s not to say that first forays into a new teaching paradigm can’t be exciting and “different” for students to attract positive outcomes. Some critics point to the ethical practice of assigning a “second duty” of work to students through homework. That debate will likely persist.

Common sense suggests that a variety of approaches can be tried by teachers to assess how these methods help or hinder students. At least in one case, a teacher who had the freedom to “flip” for her students later changed her mind and adopted a constructivist-based approach to learning mathematics instead of the flipping model. That is not to say that watching videos is bad. Changing class-time activities that eschew the lecture in favor of active participation by students seems to have been the general idea behind flipping. But everyone is not giving students a real alternative to lectures.

This October, 2013 story recounts the intricacies in trying to come to a firm conclusion on flipping. And part of that debate is centered on where it’s happening: K-12 or the college course.

For us in the public schools with younger students, I think there some things to consider if you are considering the flip:

What’s your stance on deeper learning and what do you do to get there? Flipping or not, if you’re not providing students the opportunities to learn through inquiry and by making mistakes and learning from them, we might consider a fresher paradigm for instruction that forces students to think critically. I am not sure that’s bad for homework, but you’ll find that the need for lecture has gone out the window.

It is easy to get caught up in the routine of what’s asked of us, day to day, and week to week. Everything around us may seem quite normal: our habits, what’s for dinner, and who’s on the other end of that phone call you just got done with. But if you have just a few minutes to stop that routine and close your eyes and think for a few minutes, consider what today is like compared to last month. Then go back further. Last year, and maybe 10 years ago. What’s changed?

For me, I spent a lot less time on my home computer. By my own standards, it’s old (I bought it in 2009) but I don’t really see the need to upgrade. I don’t watch TV hardly ever through cable; I’ll watch what specifically I want through YouTube or Netflix. I read a lot more written today by people who I don’t know but neither do you, which is to say, I spend more time reading news sites by unnamed authors and Tweets by people who aren’t household names. I don’t have a lot of change in my pockets anymore. And at work, I’m more often in schools now than I have been before.

I also realize I’ve been thinking like this a lot less because I’m caught up in that daily routine. I have a shelf of books waiting to be read, if I can only put down my illuminated, internet-connected screens. (It’s so bad, in fact, that I thought one evening of buying the ebook versions just so I could keep using the device.) Humor aside, this past week I took a “day off” from my normal routine and went to a conference. I presented. I watched our principal, Tina McCay, get recognized as a significant change agent. And then I listened to the final speaker, and on the drive back from Williamsburg, a bunch of different ideas, feelings, and emotions all came together into focus. It was really nice to take a few minutes–maybe a little more than a few–to think.

I looked up this video, which in the “2.0″ version, I showed when I keynoted a convocation for Goochland many years ago. This is 4.0, but still dated. It came out the same year as my home computer, 2009:

And even though the numbers are off and the latest trends have been missed, it still is a reminder that if we stop and look around, things are changing.

Our afternoon keynote speaker is well-known blogger Scott McLeod and he engaged us with some bold ideas (in today’s educational landscape). The preceding link challenges us as educators with some provocative questions. I thought I’d try my hand at a few short answers for some of his questions. That said, these aren’t the right answers. I invite you to think about them too.

What can we do to increase the cognitive complexity of students’ day-to-day work so that they are more often doing deeper thinking and learning work?

We need to stop asking questions that have single right answers. We all need to think about going up a level or two to get a bigger view of what we’re teaching and move away from the “standards” level and to the “bigger picture” level. When students are interested, they should dive deep enough into the details so that our standards aren’t left behind.

What can we do to better incorporate digital technologies into students’ deeper thinking and learning work in ways that are authentic, relevant, meaningful, and powerful?

We need to ensure that all students have access to digital technologies. We need to teach students how powerful these tools are, then let them figure out how to use them to find answers, develop solutions, and invent new things.

What can we do to give students more agency and ownership of what they learn, when they learn, how they learn, and how they show what they’ve learned?

We can do a lot in school to move into the role of a facilitator, but I think to really nail this one, we need to involve our parents more than ever before. We need everyone to be thinking about the power of learning and finding “ah-ha!” moments each and every day. To do that, we have to inspire our community to value discovery about our world.

How do we balance competing (often unproductive) demands from other fronts so that we can do this important work?

We, as a school community, and as a district, need to ground ourselves in the values, the vision, and mission we believe in. That said, if the vision and mission are not well-aligned with state and federal expectations for public education, we’d be in trouble. But I know ours are in alignment and goes beyond the standards. We’ve aimed higher and to get there won’t necessarily be easy. But we all need help focusing on the most essential and important things day to day.

The last part is perhaps the most important. We need to help ourselves and one another maintain focus on the most essential and important things every day. For me, that means I need to make space for the time to think, reconsider, reflect, and align my work compass. When we do that, we should not only know where we are, but where we are headed.

This afternoon, I’m leading a session on eBooks. It’s a big topic, and presumably, if you’re reading this, you would like to know a thing or two about them. Since I am going to tailor the workshop around individual needs and interests, I will point out a few links that may of interest below.

What are eBooks?

eBooks (or iBooks in Apple’s parlance) are electronic files that can contain text, but also multimedia content like audio, pictures, and video. They are typically designed to be read on a portable device, and in some cases, can be read on a regular computer.

What are different types?

I’d wouldn’t be the first to point out that the PDF format has supported text, video, audio, and images for some time. It’s held-up well over the years, but primarily it has excelled at presenting text and graphics in a high-resolution format that appears on a screen the way you intended. Zooming is possible depending on the reader program (such as Preview on the Mac), but that zooms into the whole page, not just text.

The newer formats are specifically considered digital book formats, and include .mobi, .epub, and Apple .ibooks. Amazon’s Kindle prefers the .mobi format and .epub is supported on iPads. Both formats are similar (but not equal) in capability, and feature the ability to re-size text (and affect pagination) based on user preference with the device or reader program.

Apple’s iBook platform is unique in that it was designed to support “multi-touch textbooks.” This format is created with their free iBooks Author software and provides support for rich media such as 3D models, Quicktime videos, and HTML 5 widgets.

Which type should I use?

It will depend upon your intended audience and the tools you have available. If you purchase a book, you will not have a choice, unless the book you want is available from a different vendor (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google, and Apple are the four big ones with stores). If you are creating an eBook, at least here in Goochland, your choice right now is limited: it is ePub. As we upgrade computers next year, we can support Apple’s newer option with iBooks Author.

Can I find free eBooks?

Project Gutenberg was a pioneer in making free books available online. They started out as plain text files. They now offer their books in a variety of formats, so the choice of device is moot.

CK12 was the place to find the first flexbooks, or flexible textbooks. The site is now clearly focused around supporting STEM curriculum and has expanded beyond books with adapative assessment features. The site allows downloads in the most popular formats: .epub, PDF, and .mobi. The site also allows you to contribute to the books and take parts of the books instead of the whole thing. They are, after all, flexible!

In addition to these two examples, the big book stores online also now offer free books – either as samples, teasers, or books authors want to offer for free. To search in Apple’s store, you can use the iBooks app on the iPad or search via the iTunes Store.

How do I publish eBooks?

Once you have created an eBook, you can freely put it online in a variety of ways. The basic idea is that you want to be able to put the file (like a Word document) somewhere online so it can be downloaded “and installed” into your ebook reader. The typical choices work well: Schoology, blogs, or even Google Drive. You can even make it easier by converting the link to a QR Code and having students scan the code to access the book.

eBooks can also be published online through Apple’s store if you are using iTunes Producer. I took my team’s dissertation in practice and converted it into an iBook with iBooks Author. I then purchased an ISBN number and published it in the store this way. My options were to publish for free (and be free to publish it in other formats) or else publish it only in Apple’s format if I wanted to charge money. People can read those books on iBooks app in Mac OS X or on an iPad.

The second option with Apple’s distribution is to publish a book (for free) as part of an iTunes U Course. You’d need to be added to our course configuration to publish through our “storefront” on iTunes U.

And tips for making books?

The two tools we have deployed to create eBooks are Pages ’09 on the Mac and Book Creator on the iPad. Both programs create ePub files.

Book Creator has the advantage of pushing your new book directly to the iBooks app. It makes it super easy to preview your book.

Pages will use the Export function to save a copy of your Pages file into an ePub. When using Pages, here are a few things to remember:

Don’t change your text with different fonts and settings. Remember that the end-user gets to control this.

Use the “Style” features in Pages to apply styles: Headings, body text, etc. Pages can use these to format and organize your book.

When inserting audio, photos, and videos, do not use the features that push text around the object. Instead, insert these media as its own “paragraph.”

When applying styles, it’s best to save that step until the rest of your text has been inserted.

Why eBooks?

p>Creating a book, even if it’s just a (new) kind of file, can be exciting for young authors. The real power, however, is being able to publish. I’ve seen students produce short stories as eBooks and the experience was very rewarding for them. They had fun sharing their work, and that fun meant they were very engaged with the process. For teachers, preparing an eBook gives students a non-edible copy of a text with the support of multimedia that can be read offline (like PDF). Depending upon the reader, students can use the eBook reader’s functions to highlight text, and/or look up words with the built-in dictionary to aid their reading.

About this blog…

This is the blog of John Hendron, Ed.D., director of innovation & strategy for Goochland County Public Schools. Through this blog I share information for teachers, administrators and families dealing with learning and teaching with technology.